Den of Wolves is the newest project from 10 Chambers, the creators of Payday 2, Heist and GTFO, carrying the same general mechanics as the previously mentioned games but this time in a cyberpunk aesthetic. Den of wolves aims to overhaul the systems that were in place for the previous games and introduce players to a more in-depth experience by including multiphase planning, a mix of cyberpunk mechanics like hacking into brain chips etc.
The Setting And Story
Den of wolves takes place in a distant future where the ecosystem surrounding the technology industry imploded due to hackers thus companies were given absolute freedom in trying to combat this problem however they saw fit.
Naturally this led to experimentation with humans and thus cybernetically advanced humans started appearing. This also led to corporations experimenting with storing their data in human brains instead of vulnerable servers leading to unfortunate members being wired and strung up to act as storage devices.
We play as the hackers tasked with physically entering locations, mostly banks to extract the secrets that are being stored inside these brains to ultimately extract vault secrets and make it out alive with the money.
New But Familiar Gameplay
The general gameplay will be familiar to any veteran Payday 2 or GTFO player, teams of up to 4 are initially tasked with breaking into a vault and have to defend the device that breaks into the vault by taking cover and preventing any enemy from getting near.
After which they have to extract the money while facing off against waves of enemies that come from all sides of the map. The most interesting part is the fact that we can enter the fractured mind of one of the human servers after planting a chip near them.
After entering their mind the footage showed players traversing multiple floating fractured structures and then solving the platforming puzzle. This journey to and from the individual’s mind only takes milliseconds from the real world and must be completed 2 or 3 times to get to the real secret.
Sci-fi Gadgets And Mission Structure
It seems there are going to be multiple types of gadgets available for combat, one such gadget being a deployable transparent shield. As per the alpha footage that was released players who equip this gadget can deploy two at a time. There are multiple other gadgets available but alas they aren’t being shown as of yet.
The way 10 Chambers is promising in-depth missions is that before any main heist mission players will be dispatched to smaller heists to obtain particular tools that are needed for the main heist. For example in one mission players are tasked with cozying up with a mercenary and his army who are guarding a valuable human server before double crossing him.
The main item or ingredient needed to successfully double cross this mercenary was to obtain hunter killer bots which is the mission that is considered the smaller heist. These heists are much easier by comparison and have less number of enemies to deal with.
Conclusion
Den of wolves is looking pretty good for it to be a proper successor to Payday 2 both in terms of gunplay and mechanics. However, other than those who got exclusive gameplay access, there aren’t many people who are excited about the game.
This could be due to players not getting enough information about what new things are present in the game that makes it different from its predecessors. While the mind infiltration is a new and interesting feature at the moment a platforming puzzle seems unexpected to say the least.
Hopefully 10 Chambers will take some community feedback from those who got exclusive access and those who are commenting on the game through various Youtube comments or their discord. Being a little more transparent with potential players will go a long way for the game from where it is now.
